A crowd tastes craft beer collaborations at Mile High Stadium in Denver for Collab Fest 2016. (Photo By John Frank, Denver Post)

An amber with sweet tea blended with a Berliner weiss. A light American lager named Kurr’s. A saison with lemongrass and kumquat. And a full bouquet of floral and citrusy IPAs.

Collaboration Fest 2016 made heads spin with an array of craft beers unlike any other festival. More than 2,000 beer fans and brewers attended the sold-out 3rd annual event Saturday at Mile High Stadium.

“We’ve been wanting to do this every year for March Madness,” co-founder and chief technology officer Greg Avola said. “We thought it’d be really cool for to do it from the beer side.”

Untappd will track the number of unique check-ins to each brewery for each round. The rounds coincide with the each of the rounds in the NCAA Tournament, for example the first round will take place March 17-18.

“Hopefully in a two-day period, we’ll see some upsets and some Cinderellas,” Avola said.

A snowboarder launches off a jump at Left Hand Brewing’s Hops and Handrails beer festival in 2015. (Photo provided by Left Hand Brewing)

Left Hand Brewing is hosting a beer festival Saturday that combines the best of Colorado: craft beer, snow and bluegrass.

It’s called Hops and Handrails. The Longmont event will feature 150 beers from 60 breweries. A snowboard rail jam competition. And this year, Left Hand is upping the ante with music headliner and mandolin extraordinaire Sam Bush. The ticketed event is a benefit for a handful of charities.

Event Manager Josh Goldberg puts it succinctly: “Craft beer and snowboarding is a match made in Colorado heaven! It’s a stellar event and brings together two outstanding Colorado industries.”

The 2016 Hops and Handrails opens its doors at 11 a.m. and the event starts at noon. (Ticket details.) Here’s a breakdown:

Spirit Hound Distillers in Lyons released its malt whisky two years after their town of Lyons flooded in September 2013. They had six oak barrels filled with whisky when the flood hit. (Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post )

UPDATED: Upslope Brewing will tap a Scottish-style ale this week with a backstory like no other craft beer.

The tale starts in August 2013 when Spirit Hound Distillers in Lyons borrowed Upslope Brewing’s Lee Hill facility to make five batches of wash or their whisky, trucking it back to Lyons for fermenting, distilling and aging in 53-gallon oak barrels.

A month later, the epic floods hit the distillery with a vengeance. More than a foot of water and mud everywhere. At least one barrel was ruined, but others survived to become “flood proof” whisky.

Two years after it went into the barrel, Spirit Hound sold its first bottles in August. But the barrels kept giving. Spirit Hound distiller Craig Englehorn — himself a former Oskar Blues brewer — collaborated with Upslope brewer Charlie Condon to make a special beer to match the barrels.

Officials from the Denver Comic Con pose as they help with Breckenridge Brewery’s annual DCC beer on April 10, 2015 at Breckenridge Brewery in Denver. This year’s beer is called “Hulk’s Mash.” (Provided by Breckenridge Brewery)

The Denver Comic Con beer-naming contest, a tradition that’s been around as long as the con itself, kicked off its fifth year Monday. The DCC and Breckenridge Brewery are teaming up for their annual contest, inviting fans to come up with names for the alcoholic beverage.

Names suggestions can be submitted on the Denver Comic Con’s Facebook page until 5 p.m. Wednesday. The top handful of names will be selected by a committee and then voting opens from March 3-7.

Previous names for the DCC beer have been The Fantastic Pour (2012), The Caped Brewsader (2013), Brews Wayne (2014) and Hulk’s Mash (2015).

The winner of the competition will receive a prize package from Breckenridge, which includes free beer for a year and a Denver Comic Con beer.

The beer is an American pale lager brewed with fresh apricot puree. From the DCC: “It’s a delightfully crisp beer with a fullness that hints at grains and earth. It has just enough bittering hops to leave a pleasant, dry finish, inviting the next sip. The beers’ sweetness pairs perfectly with fresh apricot aroma and flavor.”

There will be a launch party for the beer, but the date and location of the event will be announced at a future date.

A bit of Fort Collins will come to Denver early next year with New Belgium’s 10-barrel brewery in RiNo, so it seems only fair that Denver returns the favor.

Prost Brewing Co., known for its German-style beers, plans to open a tasting room by late-March or early April at 321 Old Firehouse Alley in Fort Collins. Taking the back of Illegal Pete’s building, Prost will build out a tasting room and beer garden with a dozen beers on tap, said Troy Johnson, a Prost co-owner.

Prost Brewing

Fort Collins was a logical locale for Prost’s expansion, Johnston said, noting that two of the brewery’s partners live there, three went to college there and all continue to have strong ties to the community.

“We just wanted to be involved with the community,” Johnston said. “The location is great. It’s a work in progress.” Read more…

A day three years in the making came Friday as Crazy Mountain Brewing, the Vail Valley-based brewer that has won fans beyond Colorado’s borders, opened the doors of its tap room in Denver.

Breckenridge Brewery gave Crazy Mountain first dibs on its 50-barrel brewhouse space at 471 N. Kalamath St. as it prepared to move to a new farm-style brewery complex in Littleton. Crazy Mountain started brewing last year in the space, which has a much larger capacity and already has become its main production facility for bottles. Crazy Mountain’s Edwards brewery and tap room still are open, but owners Kevin and Marisa Selvy have said they may shift to a more specialized focus there.

On Friday, after two nights of soft openings, the tap room and Texas-style barbecue restaurant opened its doors to the public.

Crazy Mountain Tap Room + BBQ is operated by Beaver Creek-based Group970 Restaurants, while Crazy Mountain will operate the brewing space and a “speakeasy” between the offices and the restaurant.

The Broncos’ Peyton Manning walks onto the field after the team won Super Bowl 50 against the Carolina Panthers. Manning said he wanted to drink a Budweiser after the game. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)

The American craft beer community really, really wants Peyton Manning to try what it has to offer.

In response, the Brewers Association felt the future hall of famer deserved beer that may be more appropriate.

“Wouldn’t he rather have a beer more fitting of his superstardom; maybe a beer that more closely represents the Broncos’ status as an underdog? That’s what we believe small and independent craft brewers represent,” the CraftBeer.com staff wrote Thursday.

So the BA staff sent a care package and a congratulatory letter to Manning for his Super Bowl victory.

Peyton Manning (18) of the Denver Broncos takes the field for pregame warmups. The Denver Broncos played the Baltimore Ravens at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver on Seot, 13, 2015. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post)

Well, one Colorado brewery is looking to give the Sheriff — and others — a different option.

Left Hand Brewing Company is offering a free pint of beer in exchange for an empty bottle or can of Budweiser in its tasting room between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. this Monday and Tuesday.

“We believe that our quarterback in Colorado deserves better and this craft brew is for you,” Left Hand spokeswoman Emily Armstrong said.

The brewery and the Colorado Craft Brewers Guild are encouraging other local breweries to join in the exchange to help promote independent craft beer, Armstrong said.

“We’re huge Broncos and Peyton Manning fans, so we just want the best for everybody all around,” she said.

New Belgium is opening a new brewery in North Carolina (Kyle Wagner, The Denver Post).

UPDATED: Super Bowl 50 is inspiring friendly wagers — and a good bit of trash talking — between craft breweries in the hometowns of the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers.

The brewers guilds in Colorado and North Carolina are preparing to wager a tap takeover featuring the winner’s beer in the loser’s state where the public can pick the brewery. And individual brewers are placing their own bets.

Strange Craft Beer Co. in Denver is challenging NoDa Brewing in Charlotte. If the Broncos win, NoDa must ship cases of its award-winning Hop Drop ‘N Roll IPA and Coco Loco Porter to Strange. If the Panthers win, Strange must ship its award-winning kriek and barleywine to NoDa. Also, the losing brewer must wear the winning team’s jersey for a day.

Our new iPad app serves as a guide to metro Denver’s bountiful breweries, beer bars and bottle shops, the holy trinity of craft beer enjoyment for followers and fans. Download the app for iPad .
Next time you head for a beer in Boulder, don’t forget your friend, Beers of Boulder and Boulder County, an iPad app from the Daily Camera. Download the app for iPad .

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In Colorado, our pint glasses overflow with excellent beer. New breweries, new batches, festivals every other week. How lucky are we? First Drafts is The Denver Post's beer blog aimed at helping you keep tabs on the state's ever-expanding craft beer culture. We offer a mash of news, event coverage, homegrown stories, tasting notes and tips to help you imbibe. Expert drinker or homebrewer? Let us know what you're loving about Colorado's beer scene. Not sure exactly what a firkin is? No worries, let us be your guide. Go ahead. Belly up and drink it in!